[Astral Abyss]

Just joined the club. Traded in my WA6-SE and sold my WA2. I'm completely enthralled with it so far. Huge leap in performance. Worth every penny.

Shipped with all Russian tubes. NOS 6SN7s and 5U4Gs and new EH 300Bs. Thinking about going with EML 300B- XLs and 274B mesh once I break it in. I had a EML 274B mesh in the 6-SE and liked it.

 

[pippen99]

I would caution you on purchasing EML. Several of us over on the WA33 thread are getting runaround attempting to get warranty claims processed. We are beyond frustrated with JacMusic and his lack of responsiveness. They sound good but don’t count on the warranty. I had a WA5 and loved every minute I owned it. Congratulations.

 

[arftech]

Just joined the club. Traded in my WA6-SE and sold my WA2. I'm completely enthralled with it so far. Huge leap in performance. Worth every penny.

Shipped with all Russian tubes. NOS 6SN7s and 5U4Gs and new EH 300Bs. Thinking about going with EML 300B- XLs and 274B mesh once I break it in. I had a EML 274B mesh in the 6-SE and liked it.

Congratulation! That’s the silver finish I should have bought With the black finish it’s hard to see the markings.

 

[Astral Abyss]

Congratulation! That’s the silver finish I should have bought With the black finish it’s hard to see the markings.

That's exactly why I went with the silver! I had a silver 6SE and a black 2. As much as I like the black, I could never see the markings and it's more of a big deal on the 5LE.

 

[Astral Abyss]

I would caution you on purchasing EML. Several of us over on the WA33 thread are getting runaround attempting to get warranty claims processed. We are beyond frustrated with JacMusic and his lack of responsiveness. They sound good but don’t count on the warranty. I had a WA5 and loved every minute I owned it. Congratulations.

Damn, that's not good to hear. Warranty support is a big deal when you offer a 5 year warranty on a tube.

 

[eboy2003]

I can hear noise from the headphone connected to WA5LE v2 even if the amp is powered OFF. I am using HD800S with HP Power L, impedance H, level L. If I switch HP Power to H, the noise is gone. This noise always persists even if I remove all tubes after powering off the amp. This is not from the capacitor discharge. Can anyone with WA5LE v2 confirm this is normal? It is rather strange for a tube amp power off is not a true OFF. I used to have a WA5LE v1 and I don't recall I had this behavior.

 

[Nicolas Yance]

I can hear noise from the headphone connected to WA5LE v2 even if the amp is powered OFF. I am using HD800S with HP Power L, impedance H, level L. If I switch HP Power to H, the noise is gone. This noise always persists even if I remove all tubes after powering off the amp. This is not from the capacitor discharge. Can anyone with WA5LE v2 confirm this is normal? It is rather strange for a tube amp power off is not a true OFF. I used to have a WA5LE v1 and I don't recall I had this behavior.

I can report you that mine does exactly the same as yours. Maybe Mike from Woo Audio can confirm this as regular function.

 

[eboy2003]

Thanks for confirming. Mike at Woo said it's normal too. It is still strange why Woo implemented this way.

 

[Astral Abyss]

Is there any benefits for using the XLR input on the 5LE or is it just for convenience and all inputs are SE?

 

[eboy2003]

XLR is converted to SE internally, I would just do SE input

 

[arftech]

XLR is converted to SE internally, I would just do SE input

I use XLR because I feel it’s a more robust connection.

 

[cddc]

Is there any benefits for using the XLR input on the 5LE or is it just for convenience and all inputs are SE?

It depends on the circuit design of 5/5LE. If it is a fully balanced circuit (i.e. 4 amplification channels), it's better to use XLR input if the DAC has fully balanced output at the same time.

If either of your DAC or Amp is not fully balanced, then use the SE.

 

[Astral Abyss]

Appreciate all the answers. I'll just continue using the SE input then, if it makes no difference to the amp, since it's what the WA6-SE I had previously was using and is already in place.

 

[cddc]

The output stage of 5/5LE is SE for sure, otherwise it will require four 300B tubes. The 2 channels in each of the two 6SN7 input tubes of 5/5LE can be in series or in parallel or independent (4 channels here), hard to say without seeing the circuit diagram.

Most tube amps are SE.

 

[Bonddam]

I did some big changes I sold WA33 Elite and Holo May KTE and every headphone but 1266 and Empyrean. My money went to my 2 channel setup and Wells Audio setup. I went ahead and bought wa5 Le just now for the more romantic sound of woo. DACs will be primaluna Evo 100 and Wells Cipher both are single ended. Spend less on tubes for this amp. Does it do good job of powering 1266?